summary of the USA PATRIOT Act and other government acts. 2/11/2003 AMERICAN CIVIL LIBIRTIES UNION. December 2, 2008 <http://www.aclu.org/takeaction/general/18880pub20030211.html>.
  1. 45 days after the Sept. 11 attacks Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act
  2. this gives the government the power to access to your medical records, tax records, information about the books you buy or borrow without probable cause and power to break into your home and conduct secret searches without telling you for weeks, months, or indefinitely.
  3. some of these provisions were set to expire at the end of the year but President Bush wanted to make them permanent
  4. This threatens rights such as the 1,4,5,6,8,&14th amendment
  5. 1st Amendment-freedom of religion, speech, assembly, and press
  6. 4th Amendment-freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures
  7. 5th Amendment-no person to be deprived life, liberty or property without due process of law
  8. 6th Amendment-Right to a speedy public trial by animpartial jury, right to be informed of the facts of the accusation,right to confront witnesses and have the assistance of counsel.
  9. 8th Amendment-No excessive bail or cruel and unusual punishment shall be imposed.
  10. 14th Amendment-All persons (citizens and noncitizens)within the US are entitled to due process and the equal protection of the laws.
  11. could subject political organizations to surveillance, wiretapping,harassment, and criminal action for political advocacy USA PATRIOT ACT
  12. Expands ability of law enforcement to conduct secret searches, gives them powers of phone and Internet surveillance, and access to highly personal medical, financial,mental health, and student records with minimal judicial oversight
  13. Allows FBI Agents to investigate American citizens for criminal matters without probable cause of crime if they say it is for “intelligence purposes.”
  14. Permits non-citizens to be jailed based on mere suspicion and to be denied re-admission to the US for engaging in free speech.Suspects convicted of no crime may be detained indefinitely in six month increments without meaningful judicial review. NEW FEDERAL EXECUTIVE BRANCH ACTIONS
  15. 8,000 Arab and South Asian immigrants have been
    interrogated because of their religion or ethnic background,
    not because of actual wrongdoing.
  16. men mostly of Arab and South Asian origin
    have been held in secretive federal custody for weeks and
    months
  17. sometimes without any charges filed against them.
  18. The government has refused to publish their names and whereabouts, even when ordered to do so by the courts.• The press and the public have been barred from immigration
  19. court hearings of those detained after Sept 11 and
    the courts are ordered to keep secret even that the hearings
    are taking place.
  20. The government is allowed to monitor communications between
    federal detainees and their lawyers, destroying the attorneyclient
    privilege and threatening the right to counsel.
  21. New Attorney General Guidelines allow FBI spying on religious
    and political organizations and individuals without having
    evidence of wrongdoing.
  22. President Bush has ordered military commissions to be set up to
    try suspected terrorists who are not citizens.
  23. They can convict
    based on hearsay and secret evidence by only two-thirds vote
  24. American citizens suspected of terrorism are being held
    indefinitely in military custody without being charged and without access to laywers


USA Patriot Act. FinCEN. December 7, 2008 <http://www.fincen.gov/statutes_regs/patriot/index.html>.

25. purpose of USA PATRIOT Act is to deter and punish terrorist acts in the US and around the world
26. enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and other purposes
they include....
27. strengthen US measures to prevent, detect and prosecute international money laundering and financing of terrorism
28. subject to special scrutiny foreign jurisdictions, foreign financial institutions, and classes of international transactions or types of accounts that are susceptible to criminal abuse
29. to require all appropriate elements of the financial services industry to report potential money laundering
30. strengthen measures to prevent use of US financial system for personal gain by corrupt foreign officials and facilitate repatriation of stolen assets to the citizens of countries to whom such assets belong.

Patriot Act. June 21, 2004 Answers.com. December 7, 2008 <http://www.answers.com/topic/patriot-act>.

31.
USA Patriot Act was passed by Congress as a response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 2001.
32.The Act allows federal officials greater authority in tracking and intercepting communications for purposes of law enforcement and foreign intelligence gathering
33.It gives the sec. of treasury regulatory powers to combat corruption of US financial institutions for foreign money lundering purposes
34. it more actively works to close our borders to foreign terrorists and to detain and remove those within our borders
35. it establishes new crimes new penalties and new procedural techniques for use against domestic and international terrorists

controversial sections of the Patriot Act
36.Section 215 modifies the rules on records searches so that third-party holders of your financial, library, travel, video rental, phone, medical, church, synagogue, and mosque records can be searched without your knowledge or consent, providing the government says it's trying to protect against terrorism
37.Section 218 amends the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), authorizing secret searches without public knowledge or Department of Justice accountability, so long as the government can allege a foreign intelligence basis for the search.
38. Section 213 warrants -- "Sneak and Peek" -- extend the authority of FISA searches to any criminal search. This allows for secret searches of one's home and property without prior notice.
39.Section 214 permits the removal of the warrant requirement for "Pen registers" which ascertain phone numbers dialed from a suspect's telephone and "Trap and trace" devices which monitor the source of all incoming calls, so long as the government can certify that the information likely to be obtained is relevant to an ongoing investigation against international terrorism.
40.Section 216 clarifies that pen register/trap-and-trace authority applies to Internet surveillance. The Act changes the language to include Internet monitoring, specifically information about: "dialing, routing, and signaling." It also broadens such monitoring to any information "relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation."
41.Section 206 authorizes roving wiretaps: allowing taps on every phone or computer the target may use, and expands FISA to permit surveillance of any communications made to or by an intelligence target without specifying the particular phone line or computer to be monitored.
42.Section 505 authorizes the use of an administrative subpoena of personal records, without requiring probable cause or judicial oversight.
43.Section 802 creates a category of crime called "domestic terrorism," penalizing activities that "involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States," if the actor's intent is to "influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion."
44.Section 411 makes even unknowing association with terrorists a deportable offense.
45.Section 412 gives the attorney general authority to order a brief detention of aliens without any prior showing or court ruling that the person is dangerous.

The USA PATRIOT Act. November 17, 2005 Electronic privacy information center. December 10, 2008 <http://epic.org/privacy/terrorism/usapatriot/>.

46.Section 203: amends the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure to permit disclosures of "matters occurring before the grand jury" when the matters "involve foreign intelligence or counterintelligence" to "any Federal law enforcement, intelligence, protective, immigration, national defense, or national security official in order to assist the official receiving that information in the performance of his official duties.

47. The term "foreign intelligence information" is defined as information that "relates to the ability of the United States to protect against" an actual or potential attack, hostile act, sabotage, international terrorism, or clandestine intelligence activities conducted by a foreign power or its agent, as well as information relating to the national defense, security, or conduct of foreign affairs of the United States.

48.